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Nosy neighbours ended up in prison for beating up a Romeo teenager after catching him making out with his Juliet girlfriend in a village alleyway, a court heard.
The lovebirds had gone on a date in the girl’s hometown. The 15-year-old told his mother he was going out with his school friends, while the girl’s family thought she was attending her Quran lessons.
Soon after arriving in Dair, the teen left his friends to rendezvous with his sweetheart only for local residents to spot them.
As the girl ran away the onlookers reportedly beat the boy up, accusing him of ‘bringing dishonour’ to the 15-year-old girl, and briefly scooped him up into a car to give him a stern lecture about his ‘inappropriate action’.
The two Dair villagers, aged 18 and 30, were sentenced to a year in prison for assaulting, kidnapping and injuring the teenager’s reputation, and briefly hitting his friends when they came to his rescue.
A third defendant, aged 34, was sentenced to three months behind bars by the High Criminal Court for taking photographs of the 10th grader’s text conversations with his girlfriend without his permission.
According to court documents, the defendants wanted to report the teen to the police for public indecency but he pleaded with them not to, informing them that he and his girlfriend have been together for a year.
He showed them the couple’s text messages, to oppose their accusations that he ‘tricked her into physical contact’ and to prove that she was a consenting party, but they were not convinced.
“My mum drove me and my three friends to hang out in Dair,” the 15-year-old told the Public Prosecution. I sat in a café with them for five minutes, then went to see my girlfriend near her house.
“We chatted, then we went to get some food. We were in an alley when the first defendant saw us, cursing at me and yelling that I was a son of a dog.
“Then he forced me into the car with the second defendant in it and they hit me. They dropped me at another alleyway to beat me up some more, and my friends happened to be there, so they came to help.”
According to Public Prosecution testimonies, the two had met for some private time together in an abandoned house, but did not go through with anything too passionate out of fear of the girl’s brother finding out.
The 30-year-old defendant stated that he was taking a shortcut home through the alley when he saw the couple doing what he described as ‘unacceptable by religion and law’.
His lawyer claimed that the teen lied about being assaulted so he would not be found liable by authorities for engaging in inappropriate behaviour in a public place.
“The defendant is accused of injuring the victim’s honour, where in reality, he’s the one who protected the girl’s honour,” his lawyer told judges at a hearing.
Another lawyer told judges that the defendants could not have assaulted the secondary schooler, because he was taller and had a bigger build than both of them.
Nevertheless, they were convicted of assault and depriving a person of their freedom.
zainab@gdnmedia.bh
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